Redefining Privacy Using AI

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is all the rage these days. As the capabilities of computing, networks and devices have improved and the amount of data available to train algorithms has increased exponentially, the notion of helping software learn the ways of our minds has taken hold. From personal assistants which can book meetings, order pizza, and order a car to park itself to more sophisticated tasks of booking an appointment with the doctor on noticing the impending heart attack, the power of data analysis with smart algorithms will have a profound impact on every facet of the technology industry. While the industry is busy refining the products and services and enabling new innovations that are transformative in nature, perhaps, we must pause and see how these new capabilities can be applied a sacrosanct feature called privacy. As volume of data explodes from a few megabyte/person/day to many petabytes/person/hour, we need to think through the privacy implications and enlist the power of technology to be on side of consumer protection and privacy. This paper will look at the recent advances in AI, the threat to privacy by unmitigated checks and balances, and how should we go about redefining privacy using AI.